Shoebox Memories - 1950 Ford

Rescuing a 1950 Ford was a 12-year labor of love

Tips from Hemmings Classic Car

So, what's under the tarp? It's such a simple question, and yet its effects can be so far-reaching. Charlie Scherpa was aware of what was hidden in a corner of his friend John's barn: a 1950 Ford Custom Deluxe Convertible Coupe. "I never really paid attention to it until about 1990," Charlie said, "and it was sitting there all covered up and rotting away. I kept saying, 'John, what are you going to do with that?' And he'd say, 'I'm going to restore it someday, I want that car, I had one when I was younger, and blah, blah, blah.' "
Charlie was not so easily deterred. He has a deep love for flathead Fords, one that was planted during his teenage years, when he worked on the cars at his family's Tidewater service station. "I had been looking around--I wanted either a '49, '50, '51, '52 or '53 Ford, and I wanted a convertible, mainly for their value, the fun of it and everything else." Only two things stood in the way of taking on the convertible: John didn't want to sell, and Charlie wasn't sure he wanted to buy.
Needing a second opinion, Charlie brought his friend Fred Felton to check out the Ford one afternoon. Once he got a look at how badly the body had suffered from rust, Fred tried to douse his friend's enthusiasm. "He said, 'That car? I don't know--you're nuts. You're never going to finish that car, it's going to take everything out of you, it's a lot of work.' "
Dissuaded? Nope. Charlie kept thinking about the Ford, wondering if he could find the parts he'd need to restore the car. It was on his mind during a 1991 trip to the Scottsdale, Arizona, auctions, where he met another enthusiast who had restored a number of 1950 Fords. "He put me onto a lot of places to look for parts--used parts, junkyard parts, different people that had dealt with new-old-stock parts," Charlie said.
"I kind of got excited out there, and when I came back, that springtime, I was up talking to John. I said, 'Listen, I want to buy that car.' " John finally agreed to sell it for $1,000; although Charlie thought the price was high, his recent research had shown him that the car was probably worth at least that much in parts alone.
This would not be Charlie's first restoration, but it would be the first of this magnitude. Fortunately, he had the help of Fred, his friend of 35 years and a talented builder of street rods and open-wheel modified race cars. Fred also happened to work for the local Ford dealer in Northampton, Massachusetts, back in the Fifties, and remembered how the cars were assembled. The two went to John's barn and hauled the Ford out into the light of day for the first time since the Sixties, where they were finally able to see the full extent of what they were getting into. "It needed everything. It needed the floors, it needed the door pillar posts, the inner rockers ... the whole structure of that car, all the way around," Charlie said.
Once they got the car back to Charlie's home in Amherst, Massachusetts, they got the engine running--despite the car's decrepit condition, it had covered just 35,000 miles from new. That sealed the deal. "Charlie knew a little bit about mechanics, but not a lot, but of course he wanted to do this," Fred said. "So I said, 'Sure, we'll do this,' because he and I have been friends for many, many years." They agreed to meet on Sunday mornings to work together.
From Charlie's point of view, Fred's discouraging words were a challenge. "I found the car I wanted, I could see it in my mind's eye, I knew the color I wanted to paint it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And I knew that I could pull it apart and I could probably put it together again using the pictures--that's why I took so many pictures of it."
Realizing that the body would fold in half if he tried to remove it from the frame as it was, Charlie brought the car whole to Joe Bean Auto Body in nearby Springfield to have the metalwork done properly. He had met body specialist Brian Cram, the brother of the shop's owner, through connections with Fred and the world of racing. "It was pretty rough," said Brian, who has since gone on to work for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports. "The doors just fell to the ground when you opened them, and the floor pans were rotted almost all the way to the transmission tunnel." What did he think of the project? "I thought Charlie was crazy doing it, but anything can be done," he said.
Anything can be done with the right tools, that is. There were not a lot of reproduction parts available for the 1949-'51 shoebox Fords at the time, so Brian had to fabricate a lot of pieces from the same 18-gauge steel the factory used. Joe Bean's was a collision shop, so there were no bending brakes or other specialized equipment; Brian would hand-hammer the sheetmetal, or use angle iron or a bench vise to make square bends.
Both the inner and outer rocker panels had to be replaced. Charlie found NOS outer panels, but the inners were reproduction parts made for a coupe; Brian had to fabricate and weld in the full-length rectangular channels that give the convertible body its strength. Reproduction floors came from Paul Bradley Floor Pans, welded in with a Millermatic 35 MIG unit.
With the body stabilized, Brian and five co-workers were able to lift it straight off the chassis. Replacement NOS rear quarter panels were found in New York, but the metal welting that Ford used between the fenders and the main body proved especially difficult to find in good condition. Charlie eventually found a set made for a sedan, and Brian was able to modify them to fit the convertible.
In the meantime, Charlie and Fred had finished disassembling the chassis in Charlie's garage, and sent it out to be sandblasted. Charlie refinished the chassis in Sikkens black urethane, propped it up on jack stands, and wondered what to do next.
In addition to a certain tenacity, Charlie also exhibited a good amount of resourcefulness, both traits that no doubt suit him well in his work as Amherst's police chief. Through an acquaintance in the car hauling business, he was able to find and buy a parts car similar to his own that was located in Atlantic City, New Jersey. "So now I felt pretty good, because I had a car that was all intact, and I had a car that was all apart. And I was sure that I could put this car back together again."
Now whole once more, the body was brought to Wizard Auto Body in Springfield for refinishing. Paul Serafin began by removing every trace of paint and primer, using a dual action sander and 80-grade paper, then began working out the little bumps and dents with a pick and file, using as little body filler as possible. To protect against rust and give the finish something to hold onto, the body was sprayed with an epoxy primer followed by three coats of high-build urethane primer; it was then block-sanded with 150-, then 240-grade paper between coats. All of the sanding was done by hand with a longboard, to make sure that there would be no ripples in the Ford's broad flanks.
DA sanding with 320-grade paper and wet-sanding with 400-grade followed. Paul gave the car a coat of black epoxy sealer, just in case any of the sanding had revealed bare metal, then used a DeVilbiss HVLP spray gun to apply three or four base coats of R-M Diamont black, followed by three coats of urethane clear. The car then sat for a week "so that everything shrinks up--it does shrink, I don't care what anybody says," Paul insisted. Then came a wet-sanding with 1000-grade paper.
Done? Not yet. Paul sprayed on yet another black basecoat, and three more clear coats. He likes this method because it minimizes the effects of shrinkage. "You're painting over a perfectly hard surface that's very tight," he explained. Wet-sanding with 1000-, 1200- and 1500-grade paper made the surface smooth as glass. Polishing was done with Farecla G3 on a yellow foam pad--"foam takes a little longer, but it doesn't leave swirl marks," Paul said--and the finishing touch was 3M Perfect-It glaze, applied with a black foam pad.
Back in the garage, Charlie and Fred were hard at work, but they were careful about limiting the amount of time they spent on the project. They met only during the months of January through April, "only because we didn't want to get bored, sick of the project or anything else," Charlie explained. "It was a long labor of love." Each week, Fred would give Charlie an assignment for the following week, some part to be located, cleaned, painted and readied for installation. Parts suppliers included Joblot Automotive, a Ford parts specialist, as well as Dennis Carpenter, Kanter Auto Products and Concours Parts and Accessories.
When the finished body returned, Fred shimmed it so that everything lined up perfectly, using the skills he had learned more than 50 years earlier at the Ford dealer. "That took a long time to get it right, because Fred's a perfectionist," Charlie said. "Those doors, you just touch 'em and they close perfectly." Charlie trailered the car to LeBaron Bonney in Amesbury, Massachusetts, for new upholstery, including the top, boot and carpeting.
The project was completed in 2004, just in time for Charlie's daughter's wedding. "If you take my hours and Fred's hours out if it, I think I'm into it for well under $20,000," Charlie said. That's well under the car's book value, not that it matters: "It's never going to get sold. This is staying in the family."
PHOTO 1
The Ford had deteriorated badly while in storage. The body could not be removed from the chassis until the rocker panels and floor pans had been replaced with NOS and fabricated sheetmetal.
PHOTO 2
The original rear quarter panels were cut away, using a cutting wheel. Although large areas of sheetmetal were removed, the chassis served as a sturdy jig to keep everything lined up properly.
PHOTO 3
New-old-stock rear quarter panels were test-fitted after the trunk floor pan was repaired. The welting between the panels and the body proved to be the trickiest part of the body rebuild.
PHOTO 4
The edges of the firewall extensions had rotted away and had to be replaced with fabricated panels. Although this area wouldn't be seen when the car was complete, it was still carefully finished.
PHOTO 5
Inner and outer rocker panels had to be replaced. The inner panels, made for a coupe, lacked the convertible's full-length stiffening channel, which had to be fabricated and welded in.
PHOTO 6
After rusted-through areas of the toeboards were repaired with fabricated patch panels, reproduction floor pans were welded in. A special Vise-Grips and pins kept the panels in alignment.
PHOTO 7
The lower six inches of the latch pillar were rotted away, and were replaced with new metal. A thick coat of weld-through primer was applied to keep future corrosion at bay.
PHOTO 8
With its integrity restored, six men lifted the body off the chassis. The owner continued working on the chassis in his garage while the remainder of the bodywork was completed.
PHOTO 9
All traces of undercoating were removed from the underside of the body. A coat of urethane seam sealer was applied with a spray gun, recreating the texture of the original factory undercoating.
PHOTO 10
With just 35,000 miles under its belt, the 239.4-cu.in., 100hp flathead V-8 was in good condition. The engine was refinished with Bill Hirsch Auto engine enamel in the correct Ford Bronze.
PHOTO 11
Used front fenders from a 1949 Ford were installed in place of the originals. The parking lamp arrangement was different in 1950, so the fenders had to be modified for the right appearance.
PHOTO 12
With the body and chassis reunited, the front fenders and hood were removed for the finish work. Here, the body has been stripped to bare metal and sprayed with DP40 epoxy etching primer.
PHOTO 13
The exterior was carefully masked off while the interior was refinished. Black epoxy sealer protects the metal from corrosion, and will help to disguise any chips in the finish coat.
PHOTO 14
Charlie chose to use the dashboard from his parts car, which was in better condition. It was refinished in the correct shade of red. The gauges needed only to be given a good cleaning.
PHOTO 15
The bumpers and grille were sent out to D&S Plating of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The NOS rear quarters had to be drilled for the stainless trim clips, an exacting and time-consuming job.
PHOTO 16
Before the car was sent to LeBaron Bonney of Amesbury, Massachusetts, for a reproduction interior and top, hours were spent adjusting the convertible top frame for a perfect fit.
Owner's View
Owner Charlie Scherpa, left, and his friend Fred Felton spent 12 years restoring the Ford, one Sunday morning at a time. "Everything is standard--the black-and-red interior, leather, black-and-red top boot," Charlie said. "The only thing that's not original is that it has Fenton headers and the dual exhaust.
"The original color was Sportsman Green. I went round and round on that, and my wife said to me, 'Put a color you're going to enjoy, not a color where you're going to kick yourself because it's original and say, 'oh, it would have been better if it was black.' ' Because in my vision, I always wanted a black convertible."

This article originally appeared in the March, 2009 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.